The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for temporarily storing single or multipanel sheets, e.g., printed sheets which are to be transported to a gathering or like machine. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in a method and apparatus for temporary storage of sheets between the windings of a band or an analogous flexible carrier which is wound around the core of a reel or an analogous support.
It is already known to store the sheets of a scalloped stream of sheets (namely, a stream wherein the trailing portion of each preceding sheet is overlapped by the leader of the next-following sheet) between the windings of a flexible carrier by winding the carrier onto the core of a reel while the sheets of the scalloped stream are fed onto the upper side of that portion of the carrier which is about to be converted into the outermost winding on the core of the reel. The carrier can confine long sections of the scalloped stream. Reference may be had to the commonly owned copending patent application Ser. No. 389,981 filed June 18, 1982, by Hans Thierstein.
In order to remove the stored sheets, the section which is stored between the windings of the carrier is caused to advance through an inverting station. The sheets are thereupon fed to a removing conveyor or the like by delivering the rearmost sheet of the section first and so forth. The width of the carrier approximates or is even less than the width of a sheet. It has been found that, even though such apparatus are capable of storing relatively large numbers of sheets, their capacity is still below an optimum capacity such as would ensure that each magazine can satisfy the needs of a consuming or processing machine for an extended period of time.